Rent-A-Racer: Hertz Dream Cars lets you rent an exotic

Hertz has resurrected the spirit of the company's Rent-A-Racer program, albeit on a slightly different level. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Carroll Shelby famously struck a deal with the rental car company back in 1966, and the result was a fleet of Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 for rent. Later, those cars were sold as GT350-H models, and today they are valuable collector cars.

Fast-forward a few decades and Hertz is back at it again with its Dream Service, though the lineup has changed a bit since the '60s. Now, you can rent an Aston Martin V8 Vantage Coupe, a Ferrari F430 Spider, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, E63 AMG or SLS AMG. The Nissan GT-R, Porsche 911, Boxster, Cayenne and Panamera are all up for grabs as well.

According to Autoweek, additional options include the Audi R8, Bentley Continental GT and the SRT Viper shown above. You can expect to pay around $1,500 per day for the high-end options like the Gallardo. The R8 and Vantage will set you back around $1,000 per day, while the Porsche Boxster comes in at a comparably reasonable $395 per day. That cash will fetch you 75 miles of driving with charges ranging from around 49 cents to $3.00 per additional mile over that number.

Hertz won't cover your insurance, however, and the company doesn't want you hammering these machines on a track. Then again, what they don't know...